Via the Hill:

“In a Thursday morning session of a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) demanded answers from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about what the lawmaker considers a lack of progress in the FBI probe of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.).

Gonzales was expected to receive a grilling from Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee about last year’s firing of eight U.S. attorneys. But rather than focus on how the prosecutors were dismissed, lawmakers turned the session into a series of partisan arguments about the status of U.S. attorney investigations of two sitting congressmen.

“My constituents are asking me when something is going to happen, whether an indictment is going to be returned or whether the Justice Department is going to make an announcement that there’s insufficient evidence to prosecute Representative Jefferson,” Sensenbrenner said. “When can the public expect some news one way or the other on this issue?”

Gonzales responded that Sensenbrenner knew that he could not talk about ongoing investigations.

“Well, everybody’s talking about it except you,” Sensenbrenner retorted. “I’m just interested in finding out when this matter is going to be brought to conclusion, because we authorize and appropriate a heck of a lot of money to run your department and people are wondering what the dickens is going on.”

Gonzales then said he “had every confidence” that the prosecutors in the case will follow the evidence and take action at the appropriate time.

Not satisfied, Sensenbrenner tried a different tack. He asked whether Gonzales believed the raid on Jefferson’s office and the legal dispute over the separation of powers that it sparked had slowed a decision on whether to indict Jefferson.

Gonzales said only that he couldn’t comment but would do so at the appropriate time.

“Well, I would hope that the appropriate time would be pretty soon,” Sensenbrenner said, “because the people’s confidence in your department has been further eroded, separate and apart from the U.S. attorney controversy, because of the delay in dealing with this matter.”

Many of us who have been waiting for the hammer to fall on Jefferson wonder if it ever will. The answer to that – from a good source – is yes. I have told you for the longest time that the farsical fired AG flap was engineered by democrats to slow coming indictments of Democrats – like Jefferson – currently under investigation. From the beginning it was easy to see that the plan was to discredit Gonzales and the DOJ so that any any indictments of democrats, such as Jefferson could be called into question.

Meanwhile Jefferson refuses to resign from his lone committtee assignment, but with this AG flap coming to a close and Gonzales getting a hugh vote of confidence from President Bush that resiliance will be short lived. Many insiders are saying that Gonzales is about to take off the gloves, being genuinely pissed off by the questioning of his character and person. What does this mean except that you can expect strong renewed focus on Jefferson as well as other Democrats in the coming months.